Prompt: Class play, everyone randomly draws for roles, Sehun and baek draw the leading roles. 

Written by: anonymous until the fic fest ends

Warnings: None

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Prelude

 

“Hey Sehun-”

 

“No.”

 

Baekhyun stops abruptly at the rejection and juts his bottom lip out in a pout. “I didn't even ask you anything.”

 

Sehun drops his book to his lap and turns his attention to the older. He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. “I've known you for how long now?”

 

Baekhyun waves him off and responds with, “Pish posh. Ten years is nothing at this point in our lives.” 

“We’ve known each other for more than half of our lives,” Sehun deadpans. 

The older ignores him and dramatically falls across Sehun’s lap with a hand stuck to his forehead and cries out. “My little dongsaeng is being cruel again. He won’t even listen to me anymore. His favorite hyung!” 

Sehun doesn’t twitch when Baekhyun throws his arm in the air, narrowly missing his face. 

He’s always had a flair for the dramatics, Sehun thinks. Yet, he still can’t help but think it makes him an endearing person. Afterall, no one else can tolerate Baekhyun for as long as he has. Except for Jongdae. And maybe Chanyeol too. But they don’t count since they’ve only known each other since Baekhyun’s first year in high school.

 

With a sigh, Sehun runs his fingers through Baekhyun’s hair. Immediately Baekhyun stops his flailing to ensure that Sehun doesn’t stop his ministrations.

 

“If I ask you what do you want, will you let me go?” Sehun asks as he gazes down at the older boy. Some part of him hopes that Baekhyun can’t see the fondness swimming in his eyes. While another part of him hopes that Baekhyun will stop being oblivious for a minute. 

Baekhyun’s eyes widen and a wide smile spreads across his face as he nods. 

A small chuckle leaves Sehun as he shakes his head. “What do you want hyung?” 

Somehow Baekhyun manages to get into a sitting position while still keeping himself draped over the younger. His sits comfortably on one side of Sehun while a hand is pressed into the couch on the other side of him. Now, Baekhyun is able to look right into Sehun’s eyes.

 

“Join the drama club with me?”

 

In this moment, Sehun knows he’s ed.

 

Act I

 

“I think we’re gonna change things up a bit this year,” Mr. Wu says as he walks across the front of the classroom. “Considering the success that was the production of Grease,” He takes a moment to puff out his chest and adjust his tie. “I’ve decided that we are going to change it up this year. We will not be having auditions.”

 

The declaration causes murmurs to echo throughout the club members. Some angry, some surprised, but mostly surprised.

 

Sehun glances over at the person next to him, not surprised that all of Baekhyun’s attention is on their teacher sponsor. Personally, the casting of the play does not concern Sehun very much. All he is is the set and costume coordinator. The closest he gets to the actors is when he has to get clothing measurements, so he decides now is a good time to zone out.

 

Mr. Wu takes a moment to settle down the members. He lowers his hands and the murmurs come down to a silence. With a satisfied nod and clap of the hands, he continues. “Yes, I know that some of you are thinking ‘If it was a success due to the actors, why change the method we had used last year?’ Well, it seems that our principal thinks that the drama club needs to be a little more inclusive. And by inclusive, he means that he wants different people acting in the play. Going with his words, ‘It’s been the same five people in the main cast, change it up a bit will you Wu.’”

 

Their teacher takes a moment to take off his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose. With a pinch to the bridge, he closes his eyes and sighs. Everyone waits in silence as they watch his place his glasses back on and clap his hands together, holding them close to his mouth.

 

A deep sigh leaves him and moves to sit on the desk closest to him, which unfortunately is Sehun’s. 

Kudos for him when he finally decides to sit in the front of the class.

 

Sehun uncomfortable leans back in his chair when Mr. Wu scoots himself further onto the desk to make himself comfortable. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Baekhyun snicker and unlock his phone.

 

Wonderful.

 

“-raffling it all off! Everyone has to stick their hand into the box, whether they like it or not!”

 

Sehun’s focus shifts quickly to the teacher on his desk and then to the random box that suddenly is sitting on his desk as well. 

Of course everything would happen the moment Sehun decides not to pay attention. Then again, it’s not like he pays attention in the first place, but who can blame him?

 

Mr. Wu taps the box on the desk to gather everyone’s attention. Once everyone has their eyes on him, he smiles. “So this year, we’ll be going to do a simple play that everyone should know. Well, it’s a story everyone should know: Cinderella.” 

A voice from the back pipes up, “Since we’re picking roles randomly, what’s gonna happen if Cinderella’s a dude?”

 

“Kyungsoo will fix the story,” Mr. Wu declares with a nod of his head.

 

This declaration shifts the attention to  said boy who only groans and sinks lower into his chair. Once again, Sehun sees Baekhyun snicker. He sort of feels bad for Kyungsoo. Editing scripts that Mr. Wu takes from the internet takes work, it’s like doing an assignment for an advanced writing course you never signed up for.

 

“Alright, Kyungsoo, since you’re on editing duty again, you’re exempt from picking a role!” Kyungsoo looks visibly annoyed and throws his hands up. Mr. Wu ignores him and waves for everyone to come up. “Let’s go, line up! When you pick a role, don’t open it. We’ll be doing it all together.”

 

Everybody reluctantly gets up from their desks to line up at Sehun’s desk. Sehun picks first since he’s at the front and Baekhyun takes his chance to snatch one as well.

 

Sehun flips the small envelope back and forth in his hand, trying to see if he could peer through the envelope to see the paper inside. A sigh leaves him when he realizes that there’s a small card inside rather than a piece of paper.

 

“What do you think you got?” Baekhyun asks after scooting his desk closer to Sehun’s. His envelope sits next to Sehun’s-or wait. Whose is whose? Sehun squints at the two envelopes next to each other and frowns. Baekhyun looks down as well and shrugs. “Pick one!” He says cheerfully as he picks up both of them for Sehun to choose.

 

With Baekhyun’s face in between the two envelopes, Sehun finds it hard to pay attention to what he should actually be paying attention to: the envelopes. He curses under his breath and hopes Baekhyun doesn’t notice his slight hand tremble when he picks an envelope with two fingers.

 

He weighs the envelope in his hand and notices with slight surprise that it feels lighter. He glances at Baekhyun’s envelope and notices that his envelope has a darker shadow in the light. One look at his and he knows that the paper/card thing inside is not as dense. Maybe, the weight of the paper-cards correspond to the importance of the role. Hah! Take that Mr. Lee, Sehun can think critically about the real world.

 

“It feels heavier,” Baekhyun complains as he throws himself across his desk. “What the hell...You took mine,” he accuses Sehun with a pout on his face.

 

Sehun shrugs and chuckles at Baekhyun sticking his tongue out at him. From behind Baekhyun, he sees Jongin fake gag and pretends to choke himself.

He mouths for Jongin to shut up, but gets a kissy face from said person.

 

Baekhyun furrows his eyebrows in confusion and is about to turn around when Sehun grabs his arm. The older looks at him curiously, but quickly switches to a pout when Sehun holds a finger to his mouth.

 

“Alright!” Mr. Wu’s loud voice startles them apart. Sehun is quick to retract his hand when he realizes that might have been a bit too close for comfort for his sanity.

 

Mr. Wu waits for the last person to take a seat before shoving the box to the floor and standing up with a flourish. “Open your envelopes!” 

People are quick to open them and discontented groans filled with “Mr. Wu!” “Seriously?” and “What the ?” echo throughout the room. 

Sehun isn’t too concerned with his envelope. He leisurely rips open the flap and takes out the piece of white construction paper.

 

He blinks a few times.

 

He brings the paper closer to his face.

 

He puts the paper out at arm's length.

 

He sets the paper on the desk.

 

The paper stares at him mockingly with the letters spelling out “The Prince.”

 

“What?! I got Cinderella!” Baekhyun’s exclamation brings him out of whatever the funk Sehun was in for that one minute. “What is this? Can I switch with someone?” Baekhyun stands to wave the paper around in an offering for anyone to take it from him.

 

Mr. Wu walks to him to set his hands on his shoulders and pushes him back to his seat. Baekhyun goes down without much resistance besides a look of disbelief on his face.

 

“Now, Baekhyun, life doesn't always give you what you want. Take what you got and own it.” Me. Wu raises his fist in the air and shakes it vehemently. “Own it like the person you are!!” His hands come together for a loud clap and looks around the room. “Now, who is the owner of my charming prince, or possibly princess?”

 

Sehun stares at the paper in front of him and deeply frowns. He doesn't think he can ‘own’ anything.

 

Mr. Wu asks again, only to get silence and curious glances from the students. With a sigh, he adjusts his glasses and starts a walk around the room. Much to his joy, he doesn't have to go far to find what he's looking for.

 

“Ah, Oh Sehun. It will be your first time acting, is it not?” Mr. Wu asks with a smile.

 

Sehun nervously chuckles and gives a shaky nod. Not only is he hyper aware of the shocked look on Baekhyun’s face, he's completely aware of the cold sweat dripping down his neck.

 

What a great way to start off the new school year.

 

。。。。。。

 

“I can't believe it,” Jongin says for the twentieth time on their walk to Sehun’s house. Sehun rolls his eyes and sticks an earbud into one ear. “Not only is it your last year to confess, it is the first time you're gonna be acting and it's with Baekhyun hyung. What kind of luck is this?!”

 

“Luck I don't want,” Sehun mutters. With a sigh and a tug on Jongin’s sleeve to get him to go in the right direction, Sehun thinks about what the play is going to entail. It is Cinderella, so obviously singing (which he can't really do), dancing (which he can sorta do), and romance (which he definitely not do). “I don't even know if I want to do it.”

 

“You heard Mr. Wu.” Jongin puffs his chest out and clears his throat. With a slightly deeper voice, he repeats, “Own what you got and we'll get the best play possible!” The air in his chest leaves him in a whoosh, allowing him to go back to his normal voice. “Listen, I don't think you'll be getting back your old role back. You're stuck with being  ‘Mister Prince Charming’ and getting your whooped by Baekhyun hyung when your acting skills come out.”

 

For a second, Jongin stops to tap his finger against his chin. Sehun contemplates leaving him behind, but decides, no, he's a good friend so he shall stop for him. It doesn't take long for Jongin to walk again.

 

“Then again, I doubt your acting isn't bad. After all, you managed to keep your gigantic crush hidden for the past five years,” Jongin says with a snap of his fingers. “So acting like you're in love with him during the play shouldn't be that big of a problem.”

 

“Jongin.” Sehun sighs to turn and place a hand on Jongin’s shoulder to stop him so he can face him eye to eye. “I'm ing terrified,” he whispers with wide eyes. Jongin's an eyebrow up at the theatrics Sehun is giving him. “If he finds out, I'm going to die. What kind of friend am I if I'm just gonna be friends with him just because I like him?”

en

“Um,no,” Jongin interrupts and ‘wipes’ Sehun’s hand off of hm. “You're friends with him because he talked to the loner you back in elementary school. And you're not gonna die, you're gonna die internally, not externally,” he assures him with a pat to Sehun’s shoulder.

 

Jongin leaves Sehun standing on the sidewalk in order to walk into the Oh’s tailor shop to head up to the apartment.

 

A deep sigh leaves Sehun and he drags himself inside the store. A little bell rings above his head and he sees his mother poke her head out from the back room. 

“Welcome home!” she quickly greets him and goes back into the room. 

Sehun doesn’t bother giving back a greeting, knowing that she’ll be too immersed in her work to hear him, so he walks up the creaky teal steps to the apartment without a word.

 

“Sehun!” A voice that does not belong to Jongin welcomes him as he walks through the open door into the living room. A quick glance to the right, into the kitchen, reveals his older brother, Junmyeon. He stands against the counter next to the fridge with a steaming mug in his hand and a smile on his face. “Good day at school?” 

Just as he’s about to answer, Jongin’s voice chimes in from Sehun’s bedroom, “It was wonderful! Should’ve seen him after school!!” 

Junmyeon makes a curious face in the direction of Jongin’s voice before turning to Sehun and raising his mug towards him. “So what happened?” 

After toeing his shoes off and shoving it onto the shoe rack, Sehun ignores him and drags himself to his bedroom. Junmyeon just laughs off Sehun’s silence and turns back to what he was doing in the kitchen. 
 

The moment Sehun’s room comes into view, all he sees his Jongin laying on his bed with a manhwa in his hand. His manhwa , keep in mind. “Did you really tell Junmyeon hyung?” Sehun asks Jongin as he shuts the bedroom door behind him with his foot. His backpack slides off his shoulder and onto its designated spot next to his desk.

 

Jongin laughs and continues flipping through the manhwa. “What of it? He’s going to the play even if you were playing a tree. You can’t stop him or the emails that the school sends.” He lets the manhwa lay open on his stomach as he gives a pointed stare to Sehun. “Your entire family is gonna go whether you like it or not. They went to Grease because you managed the costumes. They went to Romeo and Juliet because you made the costumes. Now that you’re in a play, they are gonna get everyone to go,” Jongin points out.

 

With a groan, Sehun throws himself into his desk chair, rolling himself all the way to the wall and stopping with a thump to the head. He bangs it against the wall once more to ensure that right now is not a dream and is indeed reality.

 

“Why?” he whispers. He buries his face in his hands and a small scream leaves him as he flails his legs around. “Why?! I can’t do this! I can’t act!”

“You don’t need to, you’re already in love with Baekhyun hyung,” Jongin plainly states and flips to the next page. 

Sehun peeks through his fingers and glares at Jongin. “You are not helpful,” he growls. “What am I supposed to do? I was going to live peacefully without ever letting him know. What am I going to do? In a play where I’m gonna fall in love with him? Rehearse falling in love with him? Do all these things in the play that I want to do in real life? I can’t do this. Physically and mentally, I cannot.” 

He lets himself slide onto his soft carpeted floor face down.

 

For five years, five long years, Sehun had kept his feelings hidden. Despite knowing that Baekhyun is very much biual, there is no way he would have said anything to him. There is no way he is going to risk his friendship with him. Baekhyun was his first friend, the two of them stuck together throughout their elementary, middle, and high school days. If it weren’t for Baekhyun, Sehun knows, without a doubt, he would just the quiet person in the corner that no one associates themselves with.

 

Baekhyun’s bubbly, outgoing, enthusiastic, wonderful, beautiful, personality is what enamors Sehun. Sehun was content watching him do what he loves from the sidelines and supporting him through the means that he could. If all he could do was draw a few sketches and sew some costumes together, then that was what he was going to do. But being ed into the spotlight with Baekhyun, is out of his comfort zone. He hasn’t acted. The closest he has gotten was rehearsing with Baekhyun on the weekends whenever he needed someone to say the lines that prompted his character. That’s not acting, that’s reading .

 

“Stop thinking for a minute,” Jongin says as he shuts the manhwa. He props his head up to stare down at Sehun’s prone figure. All he gets is a muffled groan in reply, he assumes that’s Sehun expressing his discontentment. So he continues. “Baekhyun is gonna find out. He’ll just assume that it’s just you acting. Sure you might have some ‘natural talent’ for acting since all you gotta do is act like you’re in love with him. But all he’s gonna be thinking is ‘Damn, he can actually act.’ You are literally worrying for no reason,” Jongin assures him.

 

For some reason, Sehun doesn’t believe him.

 

。。。。。。

 

“Alright, now that Kyungsoo has finished editing the script, we can get onto the overview of the play,” Mr. Wu announces as he walks into the auditorium where everyone was sitting in separate groups.

 

Jongin, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, and Sehun were all sitting in a small circle on the floor of the stage where there wasn’t an abnormal amount of light shining down on them. When Kyungsoo’s name was spoken, a deep sigh left him as he smushed his face against his fist in a lazy attempt to prop his head up. 

“I need,” Mr. Wu squints at the paper in his hand and frowns. “Baekhyun, Sehun, Taehyung, Hyejin, Hyoyeon, wait. No I lied, I just need Baekhyun, Hyejin, Taehyung, and Hyoyeon. Sehun you can sit out until I get someone to get you.” He waves for them to follow and leaves through the back doors.

 

Baekhyun reluctantly peels himself away Sehun, whom he was using as a personal heater because apparently the auditorium is ‘too cold.’ The moment the door closes behind the four, Sehun flops onto his back with a loud sigh. 

“I want to go back to the home economics classroom. I can’t take this,” Sehun wheezes out as he holds a hand to his chest. “I don’t want to deal with feelings. Just let me cry over nice fabric and sewing machines. Please.” 

“Oh please, now you’re being dramatic.” Jongin waves him off.

 

Kyungsoo nods with Jongin’s statement. “It’s not like Baekhyun hasn’t been draping himself all over you for the past how many years. Why are you being so whiny about it now?”

 

“It’s cause he thinks that Baekhyun is gonna confuse the lines between acting and Sehun’s real feelings,” Jongin says for Sehun. “If Sehun doesn’t act whipped for him now, then when rehearsals come by, he can act all mushy for him and Baekhyun will just pass it off as acting.”

“Stop being my friend,” Sehun mutters as he closes his eyes in despair.

 

Parts of him regret making Jongin his friend, yet Jongin is one of the best friends Sehun could have asked for. Although, he could live without his smart comments at times.

 

For the next school year, Sehun is going to have to act like the play is not affecting him in any way. That slow dancing and gazing into Baekhyun’s eyes isn’t something that he has been wanting to do since he realized he had more than friendly feelings towards the older. Sehun knows he can dance, Jongin did make him take more than a few dance classes back in their first year of high school. Baekhyun on the other hand...he can dance. Although when it comes to partner dancing, he can be a little heavy footed. All evident when Sehun and Baekhyun practiced an hour before Mr. Wu called him in.

 

He can still feel his feet throbbing.

 

“Sehun!” Minho calls out. Immediately, Sehun sits up and turns around to where the back doors are. “Mr. Wu’s asking for you.” He points behind him at the doors and smiles.

 

Sehun nods and stands. With each passing step, he can feel Kyungsoo and Jongin’s pitying stares piercing through his back. The large wooden doors close behind him with a large slam and suddenly the hallway feels cold as the other cast members all turn to look at him.

 

He swallows down his nerves and slowly walks up to them, finding a spot next to Baekhyun. Despite his hidden feelings and his wanting to not let Baekhyun know about them, Sehun finds his presence a great comfort in these trying times.

 

Mr. Wu is watching Sehun with an intense gaze, making him break out into a cold sweat. Nothing like your teacher sponsor staring you down in a group of seasoned actors/actresses while you, yourself have no acting experience whatsoever. 

“It’s too quiet,” Taehyung pipes up. Hyejin gives him a small slap on the arm, causing him to yelp slightly and rub at his burning skin.

 

Mr. Wu chuckles softly. “No need for such stiffness you all.” They all look at Mr. Wu in silence. “This play is nothing more than just a play. It’s specifically designed to be simple. The story is one everyone knows. It’s appealing to all ages. It’s something that will appease the principal.” Mr. Wu says the last sentence through gritted teeth. He shakes off his tenseness and looks directly at Sehun.

 

“I know this is your first play. You got a main part, but nothing too big,” he assures Sehun. Sehun wants to disagree, but he doesn’t. He never says anything. “Kyungsoo added some lines for your character at my prompting. You won’t be singing and Baekhyun will be there to guide you throughout the play. You two are close, you’ll be able to get through comfortably.” 

“Yeah!” Baekhyun latches himself onto Sehun’s arm and peers up at him. Sehun practically stops breathing and gives him a shaky nod. “You’ll be fine. I’ll be there. You’re almost never not with me during the play. Except for like, one or two scenes. You got this.”

 

“Okay,” Sehun whispers as he stares into Baekhyun’s eyes. He swears he can see sparkles in them.

 

A resounding clap from Mr. Wu startles Sehun from reverie and turns his attention to the teacher, not noticing the small pout from Baekhyun. 

“Now that we have Sehun’s nerves settled, let’s go back inside. I have announcements.” Mr. Wu ushers them back inside.

 

Baekhyun never lets go of Sehun’s arm until they have to get back to their original sitting positions on the floor with Kyungsoo and Jongin. There, Baekhyun is still attached to Sehun’s side as they turn to face Mr. Wu who is sitting on a stool at the front of the stage.

 

“Since the script has been finalized by me, you all can take a look at the script online. I’ve emailed it to all of you. If you didn’t get it, talk to me. I have a few printed copies. We’ll start rehearsals next week. Right now, we’ll just be dealing with positions on stage and do a few run throughs to get the idea of how the play will be going. As for costumes and set design, I’m sorry to ask this of you, but Sehun?” Mr. Wu adjusts his position on the chair to face where Sehun was sitting. “Could you help them out?”

Sehun feels Baekhyun Look up at him and he knows that Baekhyun is giving him the look of ‘Don’t you dare’ because Sehun has the tendency to overwork and say yes to anything that is asked of him. He knows that Baekhyun is gonna lecture him like he is his mother, but that doesn’t stop him from saying yes.

 

。。。。。。

 

“You have got to be kidding me Sehun,” Baekhyun lectures as Sehun adjusts his hands on his shoulder. “Why would you agree to make the costumes and sets again? You already have a role in the play and yet you just-” 

“Quiet hyung,” Sehun sighs. Baekhyun frowns up at him and steps on his toe purposefully. Sehun holds back a pained groan and shakes his head. He likely deserved that one. With a hand on Baekhyun’s waist and Baekhyun’s hand in his, Sehun focuses on the classical music playing in the background rather than their close proximity and begins the steps to the ballroom dance. “I’m dancing with you, talking with Jinki hyung, and then walking you down the aisle. The prince might be a main role, but-!” Sehun yells out, quickly letting go of Baekhyun to crouch down to hold his throbbing foot. 
 

“, sorry!” Baekhyun spews out apologies as he fusses over Sehun. It’s about the tenth time he’s stepped on his feet and each time he feels even more sorry for the younger. Not quite his fault that despite Sehun’s height, he doesn’t have large steps which causes Baekhyun’s somewhat over the top steps to overcompensate, causing pain for him. 

“It’s okay,” Sehun croaks out as he straightens himself out. With a deep breath, he lets his hand rest on Baekhyun’s waist and lifts his hand again. Despite the protests Baekhyun gives, Sehun forces him into dancing again. This time, Baekhyun watching very carefully where Sehun is going and watching his own steps. “Like I was saying, the prince might a main role, but he doesn’t do anything. Not even in the Disney movie.” 

“Even still,” Baekhyun starts, still staring down at their moving feet. “I still feel bad. Not only do you have design the clothes, you have to make the outlines, get everyone’s measurements, cut the fabric, sew it all, ecetera, ecetera because I don’t actually know what you do to make the clothes…”

 

He drifts off and Sehun is left staring down at the back of Baekhyun’s head. Their feet move slowly, but smoothly for the most part and Sehun is left contemplating. It’s not as if he’s never done this, but the people who have been picked, aren’t exactly the most qualified. They can do basic sewing, but the more complicated things, Sehun will have to do. If this play is going to be at Mr. Wu’s standards, Sehun is going to have to pick up some of their member’s slack. Just like he is going to have to meet his standards while acting. 

With the dance practice, Sehun is somehow managing to keep his feelings in check. There are times where Sehun just wants to bring him in closer; to press his forehead against Baekhyun’s and to let them delve into a moment where there is only them in the world, to just let himself free to let his passions run free. Yet, each time they get close to that moment, to the moment where Sehun thinks he could let Baekhyun know, a sharp step is delivered to his foot and his world crumbles just a little bit.

 

The practices allow him to practice his acting, believe it or not. Getting into the moment, only for him to realize that, no they aren’t in love and this is reality. The strengthening of the line between reality and fantasy allows to swim in the fact that this play is his outlet for his feelings. If he can act like he isn’t dying to smother Baekhyun in his feelings during practice, then he can let his suppressed feelings out during the play as his ‘act’ and possibly move on from all of this.

 

“Hyung,” Sehun says as he stares up at the ceiling. “I’ll be fine. As long as you get this dance down, I’ll be okay. It’ll be all okay.” His voice dies down to a whisper and he swears he feels Baekhyun’s hand twitch slightly in his. “You have more to deal with, isn’t that right, Mr. Cinderella?”

 

“Now you’re just mocking me,” Baekhyun pouts.

 

Sehun rolls his head around to look at him. “If I am?” 

“Then I’ll step on your feet to teach you a lesson.” Baekhyun playfully pokes his tongue out, causing Sehun to laugh. 

“I’d prefer it if you would learn the lesson I’m teaching you.” Sehun smiles and Baekhyun can’t help but smile back at him. 

The music suddenly stops and the two don’t pull apart, but instead move together to see who interrupted them.

 

Junmyeon stands next to the laptop sitting on the dining table with a finger hovering above the space bar. He smiles innocently, as if he didn’t know what he did. Sehun knows that he knows what he did and glares at him for it; thus causing his smile to grow.

 

Baekhyun is none the wiser as he grins at Junmyeon. “Hyung! Long time no see, how’s it going?”

“Going great,” Junmyeon responds to Baekhyun, but looks at Sehun while he talks. “So I see that you two are working hard for the play.” 

“Yeah! Sehun’s been teaching me how to slow dance, but I kind of at it.” Baekhyun lifts his hand out of Sehun’s grasp to scratch nervously at his nape. 

Junmyeon hums and his smile seems to grow even wider, if Sehun could believe it. “It seemed like you two were doing perfectly fine just now. It looked cute. Almost like you two were really in love, just like Cinderella and her prince.” 

His comment causes red to explode across Sehun’s cheeks and he immediately pulls away from Baekhyun to push Junmyeon out of the apartment. “Out, you need to get out . You are not helping,” he sneers. 

“Hmm, but I wanted to see more,” Junmyeon complains, but still walks out and down the stairs to the store below. Halfway down, he stops and turns around to say, “And try a little more, it might help.”

 

Junmyeon sends up a wink, so Sehun takes the chance to close the door and lock it, with the chain, in order to get back at the task at hand. “Should we continue or do you want a break?” Sehun asks Baekhyun, but finds an empty living room instead of the person he had left for a mere minute. He steps around for a second, before realizing that the bathroom door was closed in the hall, so he takes this chance to take a seat on the couch and rub his aching feet.

 

Unbeknownst to Sehun, Baekhyun had retreated to the bathroom where he sat against the door with flaming hot cheeks and embarrassment running through his veins.

 

。。。。

 

“Father, please-”

 

“No no no,” Baekhyun interrupts with a wave of his hands, the script fluttering around in the air. This is about the tenth time Baekhyun has stopped him and if Sehun were to give his honest opinion, in the beginning it was embarrassment inducing to be acting in front of the club. Now he's just wants to get this over with. Club members be damned. “You need to stop being so monotonous. You have such a short window of time to make an impression on the audience that you have to show who the prince is within these few scenes.”

 

The advice hasn't changed since the beginning. Stop being so stiff, loosen up, add feeling, yadda yadda yadda-Sehun gets it. He gets the theory of it, but of course, better said than done. It doesn't help that Baekhyun takes it upon himself to adjust his posture by pressing his hands into his back and gently grabbing onto his shoulder. When that happens, Sehun allows himself to become a spineless ragdoll.

 

“Okay, go again,” Baekhyun says as he steps back to observe Sehun’s movements. “From the top of the page with ‘But you will never understand.’ Add in what the prince would be feeling, determination with a hint of a desperation because he really wants to find out who that person was.”

 

Sehun takes a quick glance at the script to refresh his memory. He shuts his eyes to says the words in his head and slowly breaths out.

 

His eyes slowly open and he sets his jaw.

 

Using Baekhyun as a stand in for the King’s role, Sehun puts his feet together and stares at him. “You will never understand. Understand what it was like to be the center of attention in a room full of people who just want to use you for their personal gain.” Sehun pauses and takes a half step towards Baekhyun, startling the older slightly. “I was with someone who made it feel like I was just a regular human being. He made me feel like I was wanted, not for my status, but for who I am. Father, please let me take this chance. Let me do what I believe is right.” 

Sehun stands frozen in the spot to where he had moved. Unknowingly, he had inched his way closer to where Baekhyun stands with his arms crossed. The older stood rigid from the beginning until the end of the small monologue.

 

“Better…” Baekhyun’s voice cracks slightly and he clears his throat after he lifts the script to hide his face. “Much better. Although, don’t be afraid to move around the stage when the time comes. There won’t be anything around you, so you can really express his frustrations and feelings,” he croaks out without so much as a glance at Sehun, seeming to find the wooden floorboards more entertaining than the nervous underclassman in front of him. 

“Okay,” Sehun whispers and backs away from Baekhyun. “I’ll do my best…”

 

Baekhyun lets out a noise of acknowledgement before walking away to wherever he needed to go, leaving Sehun to contemplate the script and what he might’ve done wrong to make Baekhyun act this way.

 

。。。。

 

“Sehun’s inside,” Minseok tells Baekhyun as he walks by with a box of papers in his arms. 

Baekhyun hadn’t even asked him where the younger was, but he had been standing outside of the sewing room for a few minutes, contemplating whether or not he should go in.

 

“Just go inside!” Minseok yells from down the hallway, startling him. With that prompting, Baekhyun opens the door with a heavy pout on his face. Minseok might be older than him, but he still doesn’t like being told what he should do. Even if it did help his indecisiveness.

 

Just as he is about to call out Sehun’s name, someone whizzes by him with a large box and a long piece of fabric lands at his feet. Baekhyun bends down to pick it up, faintly recognizing it as tulle fabric as he rubs it between his fingers.

 

“Oh? Baekhyun, what are you doing here?” Jongdae asks him as he approaches him with a large box of fabric. 

“Just looking for Sehun,” he tells him and places the tulle into his box, which Jongdae thanks him for it. “I wanted to go over the ballroom dance again since it’s been awhile since we’ve gone over it.” 

Jongdae hums in thought. “He might be a bit busy though. Since we got your measurements last week, everyone’s been trying to make Sehun’s sketch ‘come to life’ if you wanna call it that. Although, we’ve been using Sehun more than we thought we would be.” He inches closer to Baekhyun and Baekhyun brings his ear closer to him. “To tell you the truth, we have no idea what we’re doing.” 

Baekhyun steps back and gives him a blank stare. “Really? Sehun actually has more to do than just the costumes and sets now, you know?” Like spend time rehearsing, with him. 

 

“Not like I can help it.” Jongdae shrugs. “We all got our roles because Mr. Wu randomized everything. Everyone’s doing things they’re not familiar with. It’s a cool learning experience, but damn. We don’t know anything. How’s Sehun’s acting though? Is he doing well enough for the ‘Infamous Byun Baekhyun’? Jongdae nudges him with his shoulder and elbow.

 

He rolls his eyes and shoves away a laughing Jongdae. “He’s doing fine. Better than I expected honestly,” Baekhyun mumbles as he shoves his hands into his pockets. “I was hoping he would rely on me more, but he’s doing well enough to be practicing by himself without any intervention from me and with Jinki for more realistic practice.” A long sigh leaves him as he thinks back to the times he watched Jinki and Sehun practice in the auditorium in front of the stage, rather than on it.

 

“Awww,” Jongdae coos, “is Baekhyunnie jealous?” 

“Pssh,” Baekhyun waves away that though, ignoring the way his cheeks heat up. “Yeah, right. Jealous? What am I gonna be jealous about? He’s eventually gonna practice with the people he was to interact with in the play. It’s not like we have many lines together.” (Sometimes, he wishes they had more lines.)

 

Jongdae raises an eyebrow in suspicion, but doesn’t push it. “Alright, well, Sehun actually needed you for something, so you came in at a good time. He’s in the back room with Seokjin.” With that information, Jongdae leaves the room and Baekhyun by himself.

 

With a deep breath, Baekhyun weaves through the tables and avoids tripping over the cables and cords on the floor to make his way to the storage room in the back, which doubles as a fitting room with mirrors and plenty of tape measures.

 

He doesn’t bother knocking when he opens the door to reveal a mannequin with the skeleton of a costume on it. Seokjin is deeper in the room, rummaging through some boxes while Sehun sits at its feet, fiddling with the cloth at the ankle and makes a few marks with a marker.

 

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun announces himself as he walk inside. Sehun acknowledges him with a grunt and waves him over.

 

The moment Baekhyun is within range of Sehun, Sehun grabs his ankle and wraps a tape measure around it. The sudden movement startles Baekhyun and almost causes him to go into the splits, luckily, he saves himself the pain.

 

“Sorry, just need a quick measurement,” Sehun mutters as he reads the numbers on the tape and quickly lets go of Baekhyun to write in a notebook.

 

Baekhyun straightens himself out with a hand to his chest to calm his beating heart. He breaths out and calms himself before going onto lecture Sehun.

 

“You could have at least asked, who knows what could have happened if I fell when you did-” 
 

“Hyung, are you really gonna be my mother now?” Sehun complains without as much as a glance towards him.

 

Baekhyun bites back a remark when he sees how concentrated Sehun is on the costume. He knows he’s being unreasonable by asking so much of Sehun when a lot is riding on his work. Although, the play now requires Sehun to actually be in it, so it would be nice if he could get himself to focus on the the performance like he focuses on the costumes.  

“Sehun-” 

Just as he’s about to go into a small lecture, Sehun stands and grabs a long piece of fabric as he approaches him. Baekhyun freezes when Sehun comes close and wraps the fabric around his waist. Suddenly every complaint leaves him as his entire being is focused on the person in front of him.

 

He doesn’t know where to look, does he look up at Sehun?

 

Does he watch Sehun’s lithe fingers tighten the fabric around him?

 

Or should he just look at something in the background?

 

As all these thoughts swirl around in his head, Sehun slowly pulls away and Baekhyun staggers towards him, almost wanting to follow after the warmth that Sehun took with him.

 

“For your costume,” Sehun says in a low voice as he rubs the fabric between his fingers. Baekhyun bites down on his bottom lip as he watches Sehun nervously fidget. For a second, he swears he sees Sehun’s eyes flicker down towards his lips, but that thought is quickly stored away when Sehun raises the fabric up to Baekhyun’s cheek. “I want to stick with the blue, but since you aren’t a girl, we can’t go with a dress for the famed costume change. I was thinking about making your outer coat like a cape, short in the front, but long in the back. So when we’re dancing,” his voice lowers to a whisper as he approaches the dancing topic. “Your clothes can move around like Cinderella’s dress does in the movies.”

 

“This is what you’ve been working on?” Baekhyun breathes out in disbelief. He glances at the mannequin then back at Sehun. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“Cause I’ve been trying to make a prototype of your coat, so that when we practice, you can wear it and see how the movement of the coat looks,” Sehun explains and tosses the fabric to the side while he walks over to a closet. “Although I wanted to use something other tulle to create the volume, it’s the closest I could get without it being expensive.”

 

Sehun brings out a old fashioned looking outer coat with a light blue base with white as the accent for the collar, cuffs, and buttons. The coat looks to be fitted at the waist and the coat ‘ends’ at the hips and the ‘dress’ section begins. At the hip, cloth is attached to the coat, keeping the front open, but the back surrounds the body with large volumes of tulle.

 

It looks like a cloud in Baekhyun’s opinion, but he can see the hard work Sehun’s been putting in and all he can feel is his heart swelling with happiness. His frown on his face might be a misleading Sehun into thinking he dislikes it, but in reality, all he’s trying to do is not cry.

 

Sehun studies Baekhyun’s expression and his face is scrunched up in concern at Baekhyun’s lack of words. Baekhyun knows that Sehun is trying to figure out what he’s trying to do, but he eventually gets out a few words: “Lemme try it on.”

 

。。。。

 

Dress rehearsal. One of the few signs that the day of the play is creeping up on them.

 

Somehow, Sehun finds himself hiding behind a curtain with Jongin as he watches Baekhyun be ridiculed by Taehyung and Yoona with Hyoyeon watching with a smug look from a distance. Even though he knows they’re all acting, seeing Baekhyun’s upset face makes his stomach roll uncomfortably. The moment Taehyung and Yoona run off stage, Baekhyun falls to the ground and begins to sob.

 

“Dude, you look like your heart is broken,” Jongin whispers as he nudges Sehun in the side. “You need to chill out for a second.”

“I’m sorry,” Sehun  mutters. “I can’t help it…It almost hurts seeing him like this.”

 

“Chill the fairy is almost there, see,” Jongin points out. “Hyejin is right there.” His eyes widen and he lets out a low whistle. “Nice job with the dress.” 

“Thanks, figured the white would make her complexion look good.” Sehun revels in seeing the white gown swish around with Hyejin’s movement is mesmerizing. It wasn’t a hard dress to create since all they did was take an old prom dress from a thrift shop, added some volume to the bottom and glitter all over to get what they have now. Even still, Sehun still can’t believe at how good it looks.

 

For the transformation scene, all that’s done is for Baekhyun to release a few pins to let the back of the coat drop down and essentially strip off his top for the ‘new’ coat to be revealed when Hyejin waves her hands around with her ‘magic.’ Obviously, during the set change, he’ll change into the actual costume for the ball scene as the quick change one isn’t exactly perfect.

 

“All, set up for the next scene!” Mr. Wu’s voice booms from the megaphone, somehow not startling anybody.

 

Everybody runs around to change the backdrop from the house to the ballroom and adding in a few decorations.

 

Minho and Jinki walk onto the stage from the left. Minho leading Jinki in with a flourish of his hands.

 

“Sehun, on three.” Minseok holds up a single finger, as he watches the stage.

 

With a deep breath, Sehun steels himself as he straightens his back and has his hand on the fake sword hanging from his hip. 

One

 

Jongin gives him a pat on the back and some encouraging words.

 

Two

 

To stop his hand from shaking, he grips the metal handle of the sword tighter. Just as long as he doesn’t focus on the sweat gathering on his palm, he’ll be okay.

 

Three

 

He takes a step and walks out with a spotlight following him in. It’s blinding, but it’s nowhere near as shocking when he sees Baekhyun walk in from the other side at the same time as him.

 

。。。。

 

Their eyes meet and Sehun can feel everything stop around them.

 

Baekhyun gives him a soft smile as he approaches him with tentative steps.

 

Sehun’s steps stutter as they come to meet in the middle, causing him to look down at the ground. He curses in his mind at his flub, but his focus is quickly turned to Baekhyun as his shining shoes come into view. His eyes raise to meet the ethereal boy who is smiling at him like he’s seen the most beautiful person in the world. Which would be incorrect, because Sehun knows that Baekhyun is the most beautiful, most stunning, most amazing person to ever grace the planet.

 

In this moment, nothing matters. Not the microphone stuck to his face, not the hot and bright lights that make him sweat, nor the stuffy costume, absolutely nothing matters when he has Baekhyun in front of him. 

“May I have this dance?” Sehun asks in a low voice, almost worried that the microphone didn’t pick it up. In the back of his mind, he picks up the echo from the speakers. Without worrying about the sound, Sehun feels himself relax.

 

Baekhyun gives him the smallest of nods and a quiet, “Absolutely.”

 

The sounds of the orchestra enter just as Sehun and Baekhyun bow to each other.

 

With the gentlest of touches, Sehun wraps his hand around Baekhyun’s waist, feeling the smooth fabric of the satin coat. A slight panic moves through him when he realizes that he doesn’t have a good grip on his waist. To make up for it, he gently pulls Baekhyun closer and lifts their connected hands up as he steps to switch their positions with a large flourish to show off the underlying of Baekhyun’s coat.

 

Large steps emphasize everything about Baekhyun’s costume, just like how it should be. The prince’s coat has a much flatter tail to ensure that Baekhyun has all the attention.

 

“You look lovely,” Sehun whispers, uncaring of his deviance from the script, yet hoping it sounds like he is in character. “Absolutely lovely.”

 

Baekhyun smiles and tilts his head to hide his face in embarrassment. “Thank you.” 
 

Sehun cannot believe the work the production team had done. Baekhyun had initially objected to having makeup applied to him, but from the shadow on his eyelids to the pinkish hue to his lips had made Baekhyun’s features stand out even greater. Despite the audience not being able to see it, its effects had Sehun transfixed.

 

Their dance spanned across the entire stage, yet, more than halfway through, Sehun doesn’t even feel an inkling of fatigue. Maybe it was due to the fact that he only had two other scenes before this, but he swears it’s because of how Baekhyun reenergizes him everytime he sees him.

 

For the split second they move apart, circling around each other with their arms reaching out towards each other, Sehun feels bitterness in his heart.

 

He spins Baekhyun around before leading him a slight dip, lifting him back up into his arms, chest to chest. They stand together in each other's arms, catching their breath while the audience bursts into applause.

 

Baekhyun smiles up at him as if he’s in love with him and his heart drops into his stomach. His eyes scrunch together in happiness and he breathes out with a slight shake of his head, “That was wonderful.”

 

The moment Sehun smiles, he knows that it’s off and he knows that Baekhyun knows from the twitch in his eyebrows. “Will you accompany me? For the rest of the night? I must get to know the person who has stolen my heart.”

 

“Of course, who would I be if I were to deny such a pleasure?” Baekhyun responds with a tilt of his head.

 

The two drift apart, but connect their hands between them. Sehun takes the honor of pulling Baekhyun off stage, both laughing as the extras in the background gasp with Jinki’s voice echoing with protests.

 

The moment they are out of the audience’s eyes, they take a moment to catch their breath.

 

Sehun is about to wipe away the sweat at his brow, but stops when he notices that he still has Baekhyun’s hand in his grasp. Baekhyun doesn’t seem to notice their interlocked fingers, but suddenly Sehun is much too conscious of that fact.

 

Before he could think, he takes his hand from Baekhyun’s, almost violently.

 

Baekhyun looks up at him in shock, the turnaround of Sehun’s mood startling him and even Sehun himself. “Se-” 
 

“You two are back on! Let’s go!!” Minseok ushers them off to get back on stage.

 

This time, not a single glance spared towards one another until the scene prompts them to.

 

Act 2

 

“What are you doing here?” Junmyeon asks Sehun when he sees him lounging on the couch with a pillow to his chest and the tv remote in his hand.

 

Sehun turns his neck to look at his brother and raises an eyebrow. “I live here. I’m allowed to do what I want.”

 

Junmyeon shrugs and walks over to sit at the end of the couch, making Sehun pulls his legs up to create space for him. “Just figured you would be at school. You know, working with the club, prepping for next year, and all that jazz.”

 

“We just finished the play hyung,” Sehun states as he switches the channel. “Plus, I don’t know if I want to keep being in the club…”

 

“Hm? Why not? Hasn’t it been good practice for you?” Junmyeon asks, shocked that Sehun would even suggest that. He knows that Sehun goes on and on about how good the opportunities the club has given him in terms of what he can do with designs and creations. For him to even suggest quitting was unfathomable to Junmyeon. That is until he realizes something.

 

Junmyeon props his head up with his elbow on the arm of the couch. He squints his eyes at Sehun and crosses his legs. “It’s Baekhyun, isn’t it?” Sehun twitches at the mention of Baekhyun’s name, so Junmyeon knows he’s right. “He’s graduating and next year he won’t be there, which means you have no reason to stay,” Junmyeon concludes.

 

“No,” Sehun protests and tightens his hold on the pillow. “I can quit whenever I want. I just don’t like the way the club is going.” 

“You just don’t like how the club is going to be lacking your favorite person,” Junmyeon corrects him.

 

“No.”

“Yes.” 

“ No. ”

 

“Stop deny-”

“We haven’t even talked since the day of the play, okay? He hates me and I don’t care.” Sehun smashes the power button on the remote and tosses it on the coffee table as he throws the pillow onto the couch. He swings his legs off the couch and gets up to stomp to his room. The slam of his door reverberating throughout the tiny apartment and apparently the store downstairs as Junmyeon hears his mother asking what had happened.

 

He shouts that nothing had happened and slouches down on the couch.

 

Maybe this was a bit more than he could handle.

 

。。。。

 

Baekhyun catches Sehun’s eyes at the end of the hallway and is about to yell for him when Sehun runs off in the other direction.

 

His arms fall limply to his sides as he frowns. He doesn’t even know what had happened. Things were going normally. At least that’s what Baekhyun thought. The play had come and gone, so he was hoping that they could just go back to their hang outs and eating sessions like they used to do before they were so focused on rehearsals.

 

Now all that’s left is an empty space next to Baekhyun and a heavy heart wondering what went wrong.

 

“What’s up?” Jongdae asks as he steps up to stand next to Baekhyun. He saw him standing alone from the end of the hallway and when he had approached him, Jongdae had seen the way Sehun ran from view. His Jongdae-senses were tingling and he knew he needed to do something.

 

“Nothing,” Baekhyun mutters as he turns around with his head hung low.

 

Jongdae deduces that no, nothing is not the right answer. Rather, Sehun is the right answer. The wrong answer in getting Baekhyun to feel better, but the right answer in answering the question as to why Baekhyun is acting the way he is.

 

He quickly follows after Baekhyun, who takes little notice of him.

 

“Did I do something?” Baekhyun ponders as he walks through the halls aimlessly. “I thought it was all going well, but I guess not…” 

“Sehun was always a bit of a hard one to read,” Jongdae notes, nudging Baekhyun’s shoulder with his own. “Why haven’t you just gone to his house to corner him? From what I’ve noticed, you haven’t gone in a while and plus, It’s his house, he can’t leave it.”

 

“It’s rude to just go up and barge in,” Baekhyun argues against Jongdae’s point. With a sigh he rounds a corner and reaches a locker. He mindlessly works on spinning in his combination. “He’s ignoring me. It’s weird to just go to his house and waltz in like I own the place.” 

“Whether or not he’s ignoring you, you gotta talk to him. It’s not like you to just leave it like this. You don’t want this to grow into something worse. Don’t you?” Jongdae questions as he leans against the lockers next to Baekhyun’s.

 

“Of course I don’t,” Baekhyun hesitates. His fingers tap on the textbook he needs for his next class. “I’m just scared of what he’s gonna say…” 

“What would he even say?” Jongdae asks, incredulous that Baekhyun would even think that this situation would get even worse.

 

“That he doesn’t think of me as his friend anymore, let alone his best friend,” Baekhyun says with no hesitation. “The play changed my perspective of him. He doesn’t feel like the small dongsaeng anymore. He feels like…” 

“A man?” Jongdae finishes for him. Baekhyun side eyes him, but doesn’t correct him. Jongdae shakes his head and closes Baekhyun’s locker for him. “He’s literally a year younger than us. We’re going to graduate and go off to university. He isn’t that far off from us, yet you still treat him like a little kid who needs constant attention.” 

“Who doesn’t like attention…” Baekhyun mumbles as he fumbles with the book in his hands. A sharp sigh leaves him and he slaps his locker in frustration. The sounds of the clattering metal startles people around him and even Jongdae. “I’m so frustrated.” 

“Just talk to him, it’ll help, trust me,” Jongdae says with a pat on his shoulder. “Let it all out and it’ll feel ten times better.” 

“I don’t even know what I want to get out. My mind is an entire mess,” Baekhyun cries out. “I just want to be with Sehun again without all these stupid things bothering my mind. I can’t think like this, it’s so hard!”

 

Jongdae sympathetically pats his shoulder. “You’ll get there, I promise.”

 

。。。。

 

Baekhyun finds himself at the bubble tea shop he and Sehun used to frequent until rehearsals became the focus of their lives. It wasn’t a high quality shop, but it was cheap and delicious. Something that Baekhyun and Sehun enjoyed about it.

 

Somewhere in Baekhyun’s mind, he was hoping he could find Sehun here. Unfortunately for him, all he finds are stupid couples on stupid dates with stupid smiles and God. Baekhyun just wanted Sehun to be with him.

 

。。。。

 

The next day, Baekhyun is at the Oh’s Tailor Shop and makes small talk with Mrs. Oh. Only to find out that Sehun hadn’t come home from school that day. She had thought that he was still at school in a drama club meeting. Except, the club hadn’t had a meeting since the Monday after the play. Mr. Wu had given the rest of the month to relax and allow for everyone to recuperate as final exams were approaching and the seniors were preparing to graduate.

 

Graduation, huh? That was approaching, Baekhyun notices when he sees the date circled on the calendar behind Mrs. Oh’s head.

 

Just a few more weeks until he was free from school. Only to go back to school.

 

However, graduation to Baekhyun meant that he was getting closer to leaving Sehun and everything they had built together.

 

No more after school bubble tea hangouts.

 

No more after school drama meetings they around in.

 

No more after school study sessions which really aren’t study sessions since they don’t get much studying done.

 

No more of any of these things.

 

Baekhyun had already decided on a university. He knows he is going to move out of his home to go live in the dorms as commute would be stupidly long. He knows that Sehun knows.

 

His university choice wasn’t a secret. He spent hours deliberating with Sehun on their laptops in order for him to pick a school that he wouldn’t hate and a school that his parents would like. Acting and music was at the top of his criteria, if the university didn’t fund it, it didn’t make his cut.

 

He knows that Sehun knows he’s going to be leaving, but Baekhyun made Sehun swear he would work towards getting into the same university. 

It would be hard knowing that his best friend since when he was five wouldn’t be around. Baekhyun knows that leaving for college is something that all people deal with. He can’t help, but feel as if this was affecting him more than anyone else.

 

。。。。

 

“Sehun!!” Baekhyun yells as he chases Sehun across the school’s courtyard.

 

If it weren’t for Sehun’s stupidly long legs and Baekhyun’s cursed short legs, Baekhyun would have caught up to him ages ago.

 

Luckily, all the physical practice he had done with musicals and dance numbers contributed to an insanely good endurance.

 

If Baekhyun couldn’t catch up to him, he would outrun him.

 

Except outrunning meant for Baekhyun to keep his pace up to Sehun’s and his long legs help in getting Sehun to places quicker. Longer legs equal longer strides and longer strides meant less steps and less steps meant-

 

And Baekhyun’s brain short circuits when he runs right into the back of Sehun.

 

Or at least someone he thought was Sehun.

 

It was Chanyeol.

 

Why are they both so freakishly tall?

 

。。。。

 

“What are you doing here?” Sehun asks the moment he steps into his house and sees Baekhyun taking a sip of tea from his steaming mug while he sits innocently on the couch.

 

“If I can’t catch you while moving, I’m gonna do it while staying still,” Baekhyun answers with poise as he holds the mug to his lips. “You better get your in here and have a goddamn good reason as to why you’ve been ignoring me.”

Sehun turns his head away, but knows he can’t run out of this one. Junmyeon’s downstairs helping with the store for once and he knows that if he went back down, he’d get roped into helping as well. With a sigh, Sehun toes his sneakers off and goes to the kitchen to fix himself a cup of water. He figures now would be a good time as ever to finally formulate everything.

 

“I just want a civil conversation. With my best friend-” Sehun cringes when hears those two words, but sits on the opposite side of the couch with his drink in his hand. “-whom I haven’t seen for what, three weeks?”

Two and a half, Sehun wants to say, but doesn’t.

 

Baekhyun sets his mug down on the coffee table and turns himself sideways on the couch to properly face Sehun. “Why have you been ignoring me? Was it something I did? Did it have to do something with the play? What is it?”

 

Sehun swirls his water as if it were wine. He wishes it were, the buzz he would get from it is something he is dying for at this moment.

 

“I didn’t want you to see me,” Sehun finally speaks with a clink of his mug to the glass top of the coffee table. 

“Why?” Baekhyun asks, perplexed. “We see each other all the time, what happened?” 

“You happened!” Sehun exclaims and angrily runs his fingers through his hair. Baekhyun jumps slightly at the tone of voice Sehun uses. Him? “I can’t take it anymore. You looked at me like you saw the world in front of you, except I’ve always seen you as the world because you are everything to me. Why did the stupid play have to make me get my hopes up? 

“You falling in love with me just like Cinderella would do with her prince is only something that happens in those stupid fairy tales. There’s no way that would happen, yet the play is everything I could have ever wanted. The longing looks, the way your eyes sparkle, and the way everything around you moves so fluidly as if it was a part of you makes me feel things that I don’t want to feel because you are my best friend.

 

“Best friends don’t have feelings like this, not guys with guys. We were supposed to just be friends who went out to go eat good food and have a nice chit chat over bubble tea everyday. Then go off to university without a hitch because that’s what friends do except I can’t stand being your friend because I just want more than that.

 

“I want to look at you unabashedly because my world revolves around you. I want to hold your hand without the fear of you hating it because my hands are sweaty and gross. I want to dance with you all night without a care because with each other, all that matters is the moment we are in not the future where we worry about everything else.

 

“That play gave me hope in ways I can’t explain because I love seeing you happy and yet I can’t bear seeing you smile because I want to keep that smile to myself.  I just, I can’t stand being around you because everything you do makes my heart hurt and I hate and love the pain it gives me because I know it’s all because of you.” 

Sehun breathes heavily as he holds a hand to his chest. Everything had spilled out of him like a broken dam and he doesn’t know if he regrets it or not because his head is spinning like a record and he has no idea what is happening anymore.

 

“If this is your way of saying you like me, can you phrase it in less than ten words?” Baekhyun smiles endearingly at Sehun when he turns his head to look at him with a perplexed face. “My mind can’t understand everything because you just made my brain work ten times harder than it needs to because liking someone shouldn’t be that complicated.” 

“It’s complicated in my head,” Sehun mutters as he freezes when Baekhyun scoots closer to him.

 

“I know, but say it loud and clearly for me,” Baekhyun whispers as he leans into Sehun’s space. “My mind can only comprehend simple explanations when it comes to this.”

 

Sehun remain speechless as he watches Baekhyun close the distance between them on the couch.

 

Baekhyun shakes his head and brushes Sehun’s bangs back. “If you’re so worried, I’ll start then.” He takes a deep breath. “It might have taken me a bit of time, but I feel something for you Sehun. I like you. I like the Sehun who was so scared of acting in the beginning, he said all of his lines like a robot with a frozen jaw. I like the awkward and fumbling Sehun, but I also like the prince-like Sehun.

 

“The Sehun who knows how to ballroom dance and spin me around. The Sehun who has a really nice concentrated face when he’s working on design or is sewing something together. I like all of Sehun with his stupidly complicated personality and face. I like you .” 

“You…’ Sehun has his jaw hanging down as he stares into Baekhyun’s eyes. “Like me?” Baekhyun nods.

 

And nods again when Sehun points at himself in disbelief.

 

And again.

 

And again.

 

And again.

 

。。。。

 

“God, just come here and kiss me already.” 

“What?”